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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Ancestry collaboration brings Jewish records online

A recent article on SunSentinal.com, "Web site gathers millions of Jewish genealogy records online," highlights the Ancestry.com launch of what it calls the world's largest online collection Jewish family history records. Ancestry has partnered with two organizations for the project — JewishGen, an affiliate of New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The online collection, ancestry.com/JewishFamilyHistory, features millions of historic Jewish records including Schindler's List — the names of almost 2,000 Jews saved by a German businessman who employed them. Their story was told in the Oscar-winning 1993 film. Many of the 26 million documents are online for the first time — from photographs and immigration data to a list of people who died in Nazi concentration camps. The Joint Distribution Committee says it has digitized records of displaced Jews who were provided with food, medical care, clothing and emigration assistance by the JDC.